


5 Steps to Life

by anyothergirl415



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-26
Updated: 2009-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-26 22:39:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/288666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anyothergirl415/pseuds/anyothergirl415
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes you just need to learn the steps of life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	5 Steps to Life

**  
_  
5\. - Breathe   
_   
**

 

The sun was finally dipping low enough in the sky that the shadows around his house were beginning to look ghostly. It used to be his favourite time of the day, before he thought it was odd to have a favourite time of the day. Now he sits in front of his computer and continually hits the refresh button on his Yahoo mailbox. Oh come on, he was popular – and his friends weren't that busy – why was it taking him so long to respond?

It was two days ago that Dom had drank a little too much and was in the middle of watching 'You've Got Mail' when he decided to proclaim his undying love for his best mate through an email. When he woke in the morning – passed out with his head on the keyboard – he had a moment of panic as he saw the window that read 'Your message has been sent.'

When he hit the back button he realized what he'd done and his nerves had been on red alert. It didn't help that Billy wasn't replying. It wasn't like when they said, "no news is good news." Because whoever the fuck 'they' were didn't know his situation and no news  
was definitely not good. Oh no, that was very bad. Billy checked his email. Billy liked his email. He wasn't like Orlando with that silly phobia, no… Billy was online at least once a day.

And here it was, two days later, and no reply.

Dom swallowed and took in a deep breath. He'd learned in the course of his relatively short but eventful life that one had to learn to stay calm in these types of situations. It didn't do to dwell on the negative, on the things that may not work out. Think positive. Breathe. And you can succeed in life. It was one of the basic five steps… or something like that. He vaguely remembered hearing a speaker discussing it on the TV after a night of drinking too much.

Dom was starting to think that maybe he should lay off drinking. The thought sunk deeper as he hit refresh and suddenly something happened. He had one new message. And it was from Billy. His mouse cursor hovered over the link before he took another deep breath and clicked.

Just breathe.

 

 **  
_  
4\. – Learn   
_   
**

 

Dom could barely wrap his mind around the first sentence. At one point he managed to move on, but he could already feel his heart crumbling.

 _'Dom,_

Dear lord mate, what have you been drinking?!? You really ought to lay off the liquor mate, it makes you fly off your rocker you know? You probably have no idea what you sent me, so I'll just shrug it off as you being wasted beyond comprehension. Now go get  
yourself a nice girl and shag her while your drunk. It'll save me the trouble.

Take care,

Billy'

Yes, Dom most definitely needed to give up drinking. This pang in his heart, the stinging in his eyes, could only be a result of one too many drinks and therefore, giving it up was the best way to go. So… he would simply respond to Billy – insure it was a joke – and move on. This would be it.

Because, if he remembered correctly, another step to life was learning. You had to be strong and brave. And you had to learn that sometimes – most of the time – things never go the way you plan. So when you fall for someone and they won't love you back – let go. That's how things worked.

What didn't make sense, what didn't follow the pattern, was Dom hitting the reply button and ensuring Billy that at that moment in time he was neither drunk nor off his rocker. He was very sober, very sane, and very in love with this other man. Apparently he wasn't taking his own advice, apparently learning was too much work.

Or maybe… the learning needed to switch another way. Maybe it was Billy who needed to learn and Dom who was to be doing the teaching. Dom rather liked the idea and decided giving up on drinking was most definitely worth it.

Now he just needed to pray that Billy was up for the lesson.

 

 **  
_  
3\. – Patience   
_   
**

 

Dom was told as a child and all through his "growing up years" – as _you_ probably were – that patience was a virtue. It was something he was quickly beginning to doubt. Patience was most obviously a gift and one he was most obviously not blessed with.

The entire night after he'd sent the second email – the one he could actually remember – he sat in front of his computer and continually hit refresh. And when he woke with his head on the keyboard the next morning – this time from being tired as compared to drunk – he hit refresh once more but nothing happened.

So he filled up his day. He'd clean out the fridge, make a nice breakfast, take a long hot shower, maybe do some other chores. Or he could read, go see a movie, anything to work the time difference in just the right way so Billy would be up and therefore more likely to  
call. And then Dom realized that it was ten AM his time, which meant seven PM – or so – Billy's time and he would already be awake.

Dread filled Dom at a rate faster then anything he'd ever imagined. Billy would surly have checked his email by now. Billy would know. And this was going to be it. Fuck patience now, Dom was full out screwed. Those people who thought they knew the five steps to life obviously never really lived a normal life.

What was Dom going to do? If Billy never spoke to him again, how would Dom survive? It was simply not humanly possible. Dom wanted to cry, to flee, to hop on a plane to Scotland and beg for some chance. Even if they were only friends it was better then being  
nothing at all.

Dom didn't have patience at all, not a drop of it, and he'd suddenly decided it was a gift he didn't really want anyway.

 **  
_  
2\. – Rejection   
_   
**

 

The TV was blank and the remote sat on the other side of the room on a coffee table with the TV guide under it. But Dom sat on the couch, staring at the blank TV and imagining something amusing happening on it. He would force laughter but that seemed a little too hard and out of reach at the moment, so he just stared. Not even realizing he was staring at nothing.

The idea of his feelings for Billy, the one's he'd had for so long, had always just been a distant dream. It was like things the fangirls swooned over and so desperately hoped was true. Well it was, but it didn't seem Dom was going to get his happily ever after. He  
doubted that any of the fangirls planned on him getting heart broken.

A bitter snort left his lips as he thought of the heart he once had. There was no denying it now, Billy did not feel the same and Dom had simply ruined everything they could have been.

Every person goes through rejection. Dom knew for sure that it was in the five steps to life, though now he couldn't remember the last one. It seemed that Dom was definitely living, he had the four of the five steps down and he still had many years to go.

Though if you thought hard on it, Dom figured that these steps should be more joyful. Wasn't a person's life supposed to be full of joy? Wasn't it supposed to be happy? Apparently that was a step that Dom didn't get to live out.

As he walked past his computer to go to bed – the clock chiming one in the morning – his fingers itched and he reached out to hit the refresh button.

Nothing.

A sigh left his lips and that bitter slap of rejection shot through him once more.

As he walked down the hall, his steps drew to a stop when the door clicked and opened. The only person that had a key to his house was…

Slowly he turned and blinked. "Billy?"

  1.   
**  
_  
– Love   
_   
**   

  



 

"Aye Dom, tis me," Billy smirked and dropped a bag he'd been carrying along the wall.

Dom's eyes moved from the bag, to Billy, to the closing door, to Billy, the keys being slipped in Billy's pocket, to Billy and then stayed there. "Hiywha?"

"Nice to see ye too mate," Billy chuckled and stepped forward.

Dom thought of a witty response, possibly yelling at him for not saying he was coming for a visit, but the thought just died in his throat when Billy closed his lips around Dom's.

It was then Dom remembered that the fifth step to life was love. He should have remembered before, it may have been a little bit more comforting. Because obviously he had to get to this point.

The point in which Billy was pressing him against the wall and dropping slowly to his knees. The point when he was muttering that he loved Dom more then life right before he brought Dom's sweet flesh between his lips. The point when Dom was coming in that delicious mouth and everything was just perfect.

So Dom had the five steps to life down. Now all he needed was to find the five steps to romance and he'd be set.

"I love you Dom," Billy whispered into his ear, dragging him down the hall into his room.

Dom couldn't believe his luck; that all this was happening, that Billy actually loved him back. And as he was pulled into his bedroom and slammed against the wall, the last

coherent thought to slip through his mind was… maybe Billy would help him with those five steps to romance, after all.

THE END

  



End file.
